ļoti

See also: loti

Latvian

Etymology

Traditionally considered a borrowing from Slavic, this word has more recently been claimed to come from an older adjective *ļots (evil, terrible) (cf. placenames like Ļotumi), related to Russian лю́тый (ljútyj, heartless, cruel; angry, furious), and perhaps from the same source as ļauns (evil). The semantic change would be from “terrible, evil” to “very,” a quite frequent change (cf. the use of words like terribly as adverbial intensifiers in e.g. terribly good; the same happens also with briesmīgi (terribly, horribly), šausmīgi (terribly, horribly) in colloquial Latvian).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ʎùoti]

Adverb

ļoti

  1. (with an adjective or adverb) used to intensify the meaning of the word it accompanies; very
    ļoti gudrs cilvēksvery wise, intelligent person
    ļoti augsta celtnevery tall building
    ļoti grūts darbsvery hard work
    ļoti ātri brauktto ride very fast
    ļoti klusu runātto speak very quietly
    ļoti žēlvery sorry; (it's) a great pity
    ļoti daudzi palīgivery many assistants
    ļoti daudz grāmatuvery many, a lot of books
    ļoti maz naudasvery little money
    naktis uznāca ļoti aukstas un lika klabināt zobusthe nights were coming very cold and made (people's) teeth chatter
    tas bija ļoti tālu, tik tālu, ka paši kalni nebija redzami, tikai virsotnes un sniegsthat was very far, so far that even the mountains were not visible, only the peaks and the snow
  2. (with a verb) used to intensify the action or state described by the verb; much, very much, a lot
    ļoti steigtiesto hurry a lot, to be in a big hurry
    ļoti priecātiesto rejoice very much, to be very happy
    ļoti lūgtto ask very much, to implore
    ļoti skumtto become very sad
    ļoti iemīļots rakstnieksa very popular (lit. much beloved) writer
    pēkšņi viņam ļoti iegribējās aizbraukt uz mājāmsuddenly he very much wanted to leave and go home
    aiz pirts aug balto ceriņu krūms, kas ziedu laikā tik ļoti patīik māmuļaibehind the bath(room) a white lilac bush is growing which when in bloom so much pleases mother

Synonyms

Antonyms

References

  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), ļoti”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
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